American Flyer Smilin' Jack Martin, works with Chinese government to stop the Black Samurai, a Japanese covert spy ring, lead by the German operative Fraulein von Teufel.


This movie is part of the collection: Short Format Films

Director: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor
Producer: Ford Beebe
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Audio/Visual: sound, black and white
Keywords: serial, cliff hanger

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

Individual Files

Write a review
Downloaded 16,412 times Reviews
Average Rating:

Reviewer: qrper - - May 19, 2012
Subject: OK but...
Not a bad serial, but if you recall the Sunday comic-strip you might be disappointed. No relationship at all.

Reviewer: GeneZ - - January 21, 2009
Subject: Chapter 3 is found.
All you need to do to find chapter 3? Click on any chapter. Look at the address bar in your browser. Take the number you see for that chapter and replace it with a 3.

Done!

Enjoying the series.

Reviewer: billbarstad - - July 16, 2006
Subject: It's OK
I rather enjoyed this serial, though it's not all that exciting and the ending fizzles.The poor review (http://tinyurl.com/kgy8o) at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is discouraging. The plot revolves around obtaining the location of a secret route from India to China in 1941. IMDB inexplicably gets this wrong in their plot outline.

In watching this, I found out what Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler) and his number one son (Keye Luke) were doing before moving to Honolulu. Another notable character actor in this serial is the always somber Philip Ahn. And I recognized love interest Marjorie Lord and greasy bad guy Turhan Bey from several other serials I've watched courtesy of the Internet Archive.

After the first few episodes this looked to be a marked improvement over other serials. The schemes weren't so outlandish and the cliffhangers were resolved without changing the action. That didn't last. Still, in follow-ups the escape takes place after a short lead-in, which I find less jarring. Our hero, Smilin' Jack, whines and doesn't smile all that much. As are heroes in other serials, he's gullible, thick-headed, foolhardy and very lucky.

I downloaded the 256kb mpeg4 files. The video and audio were fine; very clean. This also made this serial stand out from others I've watched. There are actually 13 episodes, with 12 and 13 lumped together in the chapter 12 file.

Reviewer: bearpuf - - July 9, 2006
Subject: Fun for the Propoganada
Getting a glimpse to how the American population was treated to the enemy alone on an adolescent level during WW II is worth watching this from a historical perspective. Additionally the storyline and gimickry is decent enough to keep a kid motivated to watch with a little less violence than the usual fare for this genre. Be not afraid. Chapter 12 and 13 are laced together on the Chapter 12 download.

Reviewer: terracesider - - June 29, 2006
Subject: missing chapter?
Is there a chapter 3?
Update: I found it on the new additions page; I was taking the downloads off the serial/cliffhanger page.